We Drank Gold At CNY Party

My senior invited a few of us to her place to have a small Chinese New Year gathering recently. She was the same senior who invited us to Kevin and her husband birthday party not very long ago. The original plan was to have a gyoza party. Unfortunately, due to some last-minute changes, her Chinese friend couldn't make it to the party. Without her expertise in making gyoza, it will be quite hard because Malaysian aren't used to making it from scratch.

Hence, the menu during the party was changed to Hainanese chicken rice. Sound appetising, isn't it?

A must-have every time CNY is celebrated - oranges to symbolise wealth and prosperity.

Errr, these paper cups aren't really a must-have lol! Kevin and Amy prepared them for each of us, with our names written neatly on each cups.

Yow Keong was the earliest bird of the day, so he baby-sat Kevin by playing Blockus with him.



Chicken soup with cabbage, mashed potatoes with boiled eggs and some salad.



Steamed chicken with onion rings.



A plate of Hainanese chicken rice with spicy chilly sauce.



Kids set for Kevin haha!



The supervisor-of-the-day making sure everyone has their plate of chicken rice.



One group photo before we have our chicken rice.

I was kinda late by the time I arrived at Crystal's place, as I went to the pasar to get some oranges first haha! Yup, that's part of the normal customs when you go visit someone's house during Chinese New Year.

They say when it rains, it pours. When I reached the train station, I forgot which exit to take although I have been there twice. Not only that I was already late, I some more got myself lost at the train station lol! Fortunately, I managed to get to my senior's place in one piece in the end. Those who were there before me had almost done with the food, and we started to serve them on the table because the fragrant smell of the chicken rice made us couldn't resist it any longer.

Two huge bottles of Japanese sake, which was a present from Crystal's friend.

What's special about this sake is that there are pure gold leaf inside the sake.

There are the golden leaves. The gold leaves are really fine that we didn't feel it at all when we drink the sake.

Yes, I can now say that I have drank gold before lol!

Home-made makizushi from Crystal's friend, Haruyama-san.

Those small pieces in the centre are negitoro maki which combines the sweetness of maguro (tuna) with the sharpness of asatsuki chives.

Colouful futomaki which is called ehomaki (恵方巻) during the Setsubun festival. 



No CNY is complete without this - bak kua. Thanks to Michael who brought this for us.



I think the last time I had this was two years ago.



Ohh, this is Ricky, one of our senior's little kid. He is quite a camwhore wanna-be actually haha!



Ricky was quite shy at first, but after letting him warm up for some time, he started to play with me already *hehe*



Papa was busy frying prawns at the kitchen.



I know the combination of ebi-furai (fried prawns) and cheese flavoured chickadees is kinda weird, but well... we still finished everything haha!

One of Crystal's friend asked us how long our party usually last. We told her, it's throughout the day haha! Yes, that's the fact. Most of the time, we will eat, talk, eat again, and continue talking again and that is repeated over and over again. So, there never come to a situation when we run out of food on the table.

In the space of few hours, we had chicken rice, sushi, oranges, snacks, fried prawns, sake, cheese cake, Milo sponge cake, Johore laksa, and a few other stuff. Damn big feast! By evening, we started making our milo sponge cake for tea time.

Kevin using the mixer to prepare the cream.

Mama spreading the cream onto the cake.

The final outcome of the Milo flavoured sponge cake, topped with peanuts. Super nice!

Paparazzis taking picture of Crystal and Amy, (or was it the cake?) haha!

A group picture of everyone. Sorry Yow Keong, you were still sleeping when we took this photo.

I have seen Ayam Brands product, but this is my first time to see Ikan Brand laksa paste. Don't know got Kambing Brand or not haha!

One big pot of the gravy for the Johore laksa, which was full with ho liao ingredients.

This is completely different from the northern asam laksa. I think the southern version of laksa is very similar to curry noodle.

Honestly speaking, I have never received a single ang pau for the last three Chinese New Year celebrations and I thought it will be another year without ang pau again. No, it's not about the money that matters. It is the excitement when you receive a red packet from someone. This year, just like the past three years, I didn't expected to get one either, even more so when I am still in Japan. However, something took us by surprise. Not only we were given a warm hospitality at her place, we all received an ang pau from Crystal Mama.

And not forgetting, a box of Kit Kat as well.

In Japanese, Kit Kat is pronounced as kitto katto (キットカット), which sounds similar to kitto katsu (きっと勝つ)

Kitto katsu means "sure to win".